Macron impeachment resolution approved

The French parliament has made the unprecedented move after the president appointed a minority PM

The proposal to impeach French President Emmanuel Macron has cleared a major procedural hurdle in the parliament and will proceed to committee for consideration.

The New Popular Front (NPF) coalition, which won the most National Assembly seats in this summer’s legislative elections, but not enough to have a majority, announced the measure earlier this month, after Macron snubbed their candidate for prime minister, Lucie Castets.

More than 80 NPF lawmakers had signed the proposal, satisfying the constitutional requirement to get the backing of at least 10% of the 577-member parliament. On Monday, the NPF petition was approved in a 12-10 vote in the Bureau of the National Assembly, the parliamentary managing body. 

“Great news,” Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the largest coalition partner, France Unbowed (LFI), said on X. “Rejecting the result of the universal vote will not remain without consequences for Macron.”

The petition now heads to the Legal Committee, where it will have to be considered. The Assembly is obligated to put it on the agenda within two weeks of the committee’s conclusion, whenever that happens.

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Should the resolution make it to the parliament’s agenda, it would mark the first time in the history of the Fifth Republic that the National Assembly would discuss the recall of the head of state, French media have noted.

Actually impeaching Macron would require a two-thirds vote in the National Assembly, or 385 members. All of the opposition put together has only 364 seats, however. Should it somehow be approved, the resolution would head to the Senate, where it would require 232 votes. 

Macron forged a tactical alliance with the NPF in the second round of the legislative elections in July, when it seemed that the right-wing populist National Rally (RN) might triumph. As a result, the NPF came in first with 180 seats, followed by Macron’s bloc with 159, while the number of RN legislators was reduced to 142. The Republicans (LR), which had split over backing the RN, won only 39 seats. 

The president initially chose to keep Gabriel Attal as prime minister in a technical mandate, before appointing Michel Barnier of LR on September 5.